Method of receiving downlink data, and machine type communication device using the method

Abstract

Provided are a method of receiving downlink data and a machine type communication (MTC) device using the same. The MTC device according to the present invention which has a plurality of antennas includes a reception signal processing module that receives a downlink reference signal for each antenna from a base station, estimates reception signal quality with respect to the downlink reference signal for each antenna, and selects the antenna to receive a downlink signal in accordance with the reception signal quality with respect to each antenna.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of receiving downlink data of a machine type communication device including a plurality of antennas, the method comprising:
 receiving a downlink reference signal for each antenna from a base station; 
 estimating reception signal quality with respect to the downlink reference signal for each antenna; 
 selecting an antenna to receive a downlink signal in accordance with the reception signal quality with respect to each antenna; 
 receiving machine type communication (MTC) system information through the selected antenna; and 
 demodulating a control channel and a data channel in accordance with the MTC system information. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the machine type communication device uses a bandwidth equal to an entire bandwidth used by a network including the base station, or a bandwidth narrower than the entire bandwidth. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reception signal quality is determined by at least one of a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the estimating of the reception signal quality includes estimating the reception signal quality with respect to an entire bandwidth used by the machine type communication device. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the estimating of the reception signal quality includes
 transmitting, to the base station, a report on a channel state with respect to each of at least one sub-band constituting an entire bandwidth used by the machine type communication device, and 
 estimating reception quality of each sub-band based on the channel state with respect to each of at least one sub-band. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the report on the channel state includes at least one of a channel quality indicator (CQI), a rank indicator (RI), and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI). 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the estimating of the reception signal quality includes estimating the reception signal quality with respect to each of at least one sub-band constituting an entire bandwidth used by the machine type communication device. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the selecting of the antenna includes
 comparing the reception signal quality with respect to each sub-band between the antennas, and 
 selecting the antenna including the largest number of sub-bands with superior reception signal quality. 
 
     
     
       9. A machine type communication device that includes a plurality antennas, comprising:
 a processor configured to: 
 receive a downlink reference signal for each antenna from a base station, 
 estimate reception signal quality with respect to the downlink reference signal for each antenna, 
 select an antenna to receive a downlink signal in accordance with the reception signal quality with respect to each antenna, 
 receive machine type communication (MTC) system information through the selected antenna, and 
 demodulate a control channel and a data channel in accordance with the MTC system information. 
 
     
     
       10. The machine type communication device of  claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
 select the antenna to receive the downlink signal in accordance with the reception signal quality received from the plurality of antennas, and 
 control a switch to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal from the selected antenna of the plurality of antennas. 
 
     
     
       11. The machine type communication device of  claim 10 , wherein the reception signal quality is determined by at least one of a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). 
     
     
       12. The machine type communication device of  claim 10 , wherein the reception signal quality is estimated with respect to an entire bandwidth used by the machine type communication device to thereby estimate the reception signal quality with respect to the downlink reference signal for each antenna. 
     
     
       13. The machine type communication device with of  claim 10 , wherein reception quality of each sub-band is estimated based on channel state information with respect to each of at least one sub-band constituting an entire bandwidth used by the machine type communication device. 
     
     
       14. The machine type communication device of  claim 10 , wherein the reception signal quality is estimated with respect to each of at least one sub-band constituting an entire bandwidth used by the machine type communication device, and the reception signal quality is compared with respect to each sub-band between the antennas to thereby select the antenna including the largest number of sub-bands with superior reception signal quality.